Madison Bumgarner is once again not taking kindly to an opposing hitter showing emotion.
Bumgarner was involved in an odd confrontation with St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras during Wednesday’s game, with the Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher apparently angry at Contreras’ reaction to fouling off a pitch. Contreras clearly felt he had missed a chance to do damage on a Bumgarner fastball and reacted accordingly, which Bumgarner did not like.
Bumgarner could be seen telling Contreras to “shut the f— up,” and appeared to call Contreras a “p—y” as well.
Madison Bumgarner tells Willson Contreras to shut the fuck up, then Contreras pimps the hell out of a walk pic.twitter.com/JyZw4EvUng
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 19, 2023
Nothing else came of the incident. Bumgarner wound up walking Contreras, and the catcher reacted by flipping his bat rather demonstratively. The pitcher didn’t like that either judging by the glare he shot at Contreras, but things did not escalate further.
Bumgarner has been doing this for years. He has been involved in multiple bench-clearing incidents that started largely because he was unhappy with opposing hitters, often because of their reaction to homering off him.
The 33-year-old Bumgarner is not the same pitcher he once was. He came into Wednesday’s start with a 7.90 ERA on the season, and he has allowed 52 home runs in his last 59 outings. If he doesn’t like seeing opposing hitters react angrily to missing meatballs, he should probably throw fewer of them.
